


The Dream That Keeps Coming Back

by Secret Staircase (elwing_alcyone)



Category: Zero: Shisei no Koe | Fatal Frame III: The Tormented
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-02
Updated: 2010-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-05 16:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elwing_alcyone/pseuds/Secret%20Staircase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What prompted Kaname to leave Dr. Asou's house so suddenly in the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dream That Keeps Coming Back

Outside, the air was freezing. Kaname slid the window shut again, rubbing his hands, troubled. In his dream it had been winter, too. He'd felt snow soaking through the hem of his kimono and tabi, cold air on his skin. It hadn't felt like a dream; dreams melted away like snow held in the palm of his hand when he tried to remember them. This was vivid, more like a memory of something he'd really seen.

He rolled one of the echo-stone earrings between his fingers. He found himself fiddling with them a lot these days, though he'd worn them for years, hardly noticing them. His mother had left him with three, tucked into the blanket she'd wrapped around him before she disappeared – that was what his foster-parents had told him. As a boy he'd talked to the earrings, hoping his mother could hear him, but he'd stopped that eventually. No voice ever came from the stone.

Still, he'd given one to Reika.

Until now, Kaname had forgotten the exact sound of Reika's voice, but in the dream, he could hear her clearly from inside the great house. It was soft as snow sliding from a tree branch. The words she said didn't make an impression, but she was in there.

The dream came back every night. Every night, he went in a little further.

*

The folklorist's house was a treasure trove of brass and polished wood, things imported from barbarian countries, exotic and mysterious. Kaname touched a small brass pendulum to set it swinging. It went back and forth, silently, catching his face in its surface as it swung.

He never tired of examining these things. He thought he might like to be an apprentice to Dr Asou, one day, if it were possible. He had always taken an interest in other worlds, other beliefs.

He hummed to himself. That song, the one from his dreams, was always in his head. Perhaps he could make a recording of it, and someone would know what it was.

Trying to remember what Asou had done to make it play, he let the cylinder spin. He could hear his own voice, faintly, through the hissing sounds. It made him uneasy to hear his voice like that, as if he were listening to another version of himself, underwater.

He bent closer, trying to make out the words. His earring brushed the brass trumpet and suddenly another voice sounded over his own on the recording.

'...can't see you again, but...'

Kaname drew back at once; the voice retreated. Hesitating, he took the earring from his ear and held it against the brass. When they touched, the voice came back.

'...one more time. I want to see you again. I know I can't see you again, but still... if I could just see you once more... once more...'

The woman's voice dragged like silk on snow. It was the voice that had been calling him in his dreams for months. Reika.

Kaname let the earring fall to the floor. He had to go, now, to the shrine. She was there, calling to him – how long had she – ? No, no time to think. He had to go.

Maybe once he found her, the dream would end.

**Author's Note:**

> Attempts to make the Fatal Frame timeline match the historical timeline of the invention of gramophones failed. Shh!
> 
> Title is from the song "Land of Sunshine" by Faith No More, which otherwise has nothing to do with the fic.


End file.
